Assistive Technology in Early Childhood Education

 Assistive Technology in Early Childhood Education has the ability to assist students that need extra resources to become successful in the classroom and beyond. Students with cognitive, physical, and/or emotional deficits have the ability to utilize extra supports to be seamlessly integrated into generalized curriculum without being isolated or ostracized. 

Assistive Technology has the ability to look differently depending on student needs, financial resources, and severity of student deficits. Some students would benefit from subtitles and audio devices while others would benefit from flexible seating options while others benefit from "quiet corners" that regulates emotional instability. These assistive technologies are introduced inside the classroom to be enhancements to student's everyday learning environment to make content internalization easier and more fluid.

Two assistive technologies that are appropriate for Early-Childhood Education and can be adapted to reflect culture are: quiet corners and audiobooks/ audio devices. 

1) Quiet corners are spaces that are placed in Early-Childhood Classrooms with soft toys, pillows, and neutral tones that are strategically placed to settle problematic emotions students may experience throughout the day. These corners often have pictures that are in a easily digestible language and presentation that help students recognize emotions and learn tools to better recognize negative ones and make correction (Jiang, Jones, 2016). 

2) Audiobooks/ Audio Devices are to be used by students with difficulty reading and/or auditory processing disorders. Students with difficulty hearing have the ability to use sound and language to follow along with written context in order to better internalize content while auditory learning posses the capability to generate increased activity with the child's brain development in visual learning and imagination (neocortex); making deciphering incoming stimuli easier due to pre-exposure (SanMiguel, et. al, 2013). 

While assistive supports are healthy for student learning and inclusivity, teachers also warn against abuse of assistive technologies out of fear of students refusing to complete tasks without additional supports (Flanagan, et. al, 2013). 

Resources:

Center on Technology and Disability. (2018). Assistive technology 101. Retrieved September 28, 2018, from  https://www.ctdinstitute.org/sites/default/files/file_attachments/CTD-AT101-V4.pdf 

Flanagan S., Bouck, E. C., & Richardson, J. (2013). Middle school special education teachers’ perceptions and use of assistive technology in literacy instruction. Assistive Technology, 25(1), 24-30.

Jiang, H. S., & Jones, S. Y. (2016). Practical Strategies for Minimizing Challenging Behaviors in the Preschool Classroom. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 44(3), 12-19.

SanMiguel, I., Widmann, A., Bendixen, A., Trujillo-Barreto, N., & Schröger, E. (2013). Hearing silences: human auditory processing relies on preactivation of sound-specific brain activity patterns. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(20), 8633-8639.